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Unencumbered Lumber

Consumers Have Eco-Friendly Wood Choices The growing trend toward eco-friendly consumer products has reached the wood flooring industry. Eco-conscious consumers, builders, and architects who want to lay or refurbish wood floors can now choose from a number of green options. Fast-growing bamboo — new plants take four to six years to reach maturity — harvested […]

Just Another Brick in the Wall

New Studies Suggest Onset of Sixth Major Mass Extinction New evidence suggests that the Earth is on the verge of its sixth major mass extinction — the last one having occurred 65 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs. This one is likely to be caused not by a meteorite, say researchers, but by habitat […]

Jersey Cash Cow

New Jersey Economy Would Benefit from Clean Energy, Says Study The false “environment vs. economy” dichotomy took another blow today with the release of a study showing that shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy in the mid-Atlantic region would promote job creation and benefit the New Jersey economy. The report, conducted by the New […]

Won’t You Clean My Neighbor?

North Carolina Petitions EPA to Force Neighboring States to Clean Up Air North Carolina can’t reach Clean Air Act targets on its own, so the feds need to force power plants in 13 neighboring states to sharply cut their emissions, state officials said yesterday in a petition filed with the U.S. EPA. North Carolina has […]

Squander-Lust

Watchdog Groups Accuse Army Corps of Promoting Boondoggles Budget hawks and enviros are teaming up to criticize $12 billion worth of Army Corps of Engineers water projects that they say both squander taxpayer money and wreak havoc on ecosystems around the U.S. A report released yesterday by Taxpayers for Common Sense and the National Wildlife […]

Rotten to the Albacore

Feds Issue New Fish Consumption Guidelines Today the U.S. EPA and the Food and Drug Administration issued an official set of guidelines on eating fish, which attempts to balance the risks of mercury to children with the broader health benefits of seafood. Mercury can adversely affect children’s mental development, so pregnant (or soon-to-be-pregnant) women and […]

What’s Love Canal Got to Do With It?

Love Canal, First Superfund Site, Declared Clean Love Canal is clean and will be removed from the Superfund list, said the U.S. EPA yesterday. Extensive pollution in the working-class area of Niagara Falls, N.Y., prompted President Carter to declare environmental emergencies in 1978 and 1980, and led Congress to pass the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, […]

Tiger, Tiger, Dying Quick

Sumatran Tigers May Face Extinction Indonesia’s Sumatran tiger may well have the dubious distinction of being the first large predator to go extinct this century, unless rampant poaching and illegal trade are sharply curtailed. This is the grim conclusion of a report released this week by TRAFFIC, a network established by the World Wildlife Fund […]

Rockets’ Red Scare

California First State to Announce Perchlorate Limits Last week, California regulators announced a “public health goal” that will lead to formal regulations restricting levels of perchlorate — a toxic chemical used in rocket fuel that damages thyroid glands — in the water supply, thus becoming the first state to define such standards. The recommendation, 6 […]

Ready to Grumble

Congressional Leaders Chastise EPA Over Lead Contamination A bipartisan group of congressional leaders criticized the U.S. EPA yesterday in a letter for its handling of the Washington, D.C., lead-contamination crisis and called on the agency to strengthen its rules governing lead in drinking water. Embattled D.C. officials, struggling to react to findings of widespread lead […]